New rail routes spare park

High Speed Rail Authority studying Altamont option, and dropping routes through Coe Park

A High Speed Rail line between Los Angeles and the Bay Area could be a valuable transportation asset - but not at the cost of building it through a park or other wildland.

The California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), in planning the section between the Bay Area and the Central Valley, was considering only routes that would bisect sparsely populated, environmentally sensitive areas. Two routes would have gone through Henry Coe State Park, and another through the San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery, and all would have crossed lands that the Nature Conservancy had slated for protection.

The Sierra Club, in coalition with other environmental groups, has persuaded the CHSRA to add to its studies the option of passing through the heavily populated I-580 (Altamont Pass) corridor.

Equally important, the CHSRA has removed the Henry Coe State Park routes from consideration.

The new study will be funded through Regional Measure 2, passed last March, which increased the bridge tolls to $3. The Sierra Club will be working with the CHSRA to help insure that the study takes into account all needed factors.

Unfortunately, the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the agency that will actually perform the Altamont study on behalf of CHSRA, is already on record as being opposed to even studying the Altamont Pass route.

What You Can Do

Call Dan Leavitt, deputy director of the CHRA, at (916) 324-1541. Thank him and the Authority for removing the Henry Coe routes from further study. Ask him to make sure that the I-580 route is thoroughly studied.

Also thank state Senator Don Perata at (510 )286-1333. He is providing much additional pressure from inside the legislature to make sure that the I-580 route choice is properly examined.

Call planning manager Doug Kimsey at the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission, (510) 464-7794, and ask the MTC to properly study, without bias, the Altamont Pass route.

Patrick Moore, Sierra Club California Transportation Committee and chair, Loma Prieta Chapter High Speed Rail Watch Committee, (650) 207-9792 or